Printable Version of Topic

Linuxhelp _ Reviews _ Fedora Core 2 - Test Release 1

Posted by: hughesjr Feb 19 2004, 09:13 AM

1. I downloaded the ISOs from the Bittorrent link http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/. The download speed was great (I just got a new 4000/1000 cable modem line and I was downloading at 475 Kb/Sec from the bittorrent).

2. I decided to try a ftp://people.redhat.com/ckloiber/mkdvdiso.sh that converts CD ISOs to DVD ISO for writing ... and all 4 CD's fit on one DVD (it was 2.7 gb when finished).

3. After creating the DVD, I stuck it in my DVD drive, and set the BIOS to boot from the CD Drive. WRONG! .... The motherboard I was using for the install {Tyan S1854 (Trinity 400), 768mb RAM, 800mhz PIII} refused to boot from the DVD ... so i was off to the http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/ home page to make a SBM boot floppy. When I booted from the SBM boot floppy, I selected to boot from the CDROM ... and this time it worked! WooHoo! back in business .

4. I tried to do a media check, but the script I used in step 2 didn't write the proper checksum info for the DVD ... and I couldn't do a media check. So I just clicked Skip and I came to the boot prompt.

5. Now at the selection screen I pressed enter (the screen looks like FedoraCore1 and RedHat 9 ... a prompt at the bottom, press F1-F5 to get help). I pressed enter ... and the screen turned into a jumble of blinking rainbow colors ....So I decided to reboot and try again, this time at the prompt I typed this:

7. The installer looks almost identical to Fedora Core 1 ... and other than being Blue instead of Red, it is just about the same as RedHat 9. If you have installed either of those distros, FC2 will be the same.

8. I selected Manual partioning with Disk Druid and picked a existing (1gb) swap partition and my last blank 8 gb partition on my test machine (which I made root). This is a multiple booting test machine ... which had 11 OS's ... and now has 12. I set the Boot Loader to boot from this installed Boot Partiton and not the MBR of the primary drive. Then on the first reboot, I set the following in the Grub on the first boot partition:

title FedoraCore2 - Test1 rootnoverify (hd2,1) chainloader +1

9. Program selection is the same as RedHat 9 and Fedora Core 1. One thing that would be good (and isn't there) is a flat list of all programs, so you don't have to dig through the categories to find the program you want to install.

10. I picked all the programs I wanted, the system formated my root drive and started installing stuff from the DVD. My Install included most workstation and development items, but not all the servers, and it was just a little bit more than 3gb...and I didn't have to swap any CD's in or out. Total time from end of formating the drive to reboot - 28 Minutes.

11. On the initial boot ... same graphics problem as in step 5 ... so I rebooted and pressed e in the grub window to edit, selected the kernel line and press e again, added vga=788 to the end of the kernel line and now I can read the screen !!!

12. I get to the GUI startup where it asks me to Setup sound (it found my Soundblaster Live soundcard ... but it didn't make any noise), add a new user, and install any packages I forgot ... I made it through all that and logged in as root.

13. My first thing is to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add the vga=788 permanently so I can see the screen when I boot!

14. The kernel is Fedora Core (2.6.1-1.65). First let's see what is up with the sound. A quick check shows all the ALSA drivers are loaded ... but it is not working ... OK on to upgrades, maybe that will fix it. There are an unbelievable 201 updates ... and the CDs have been out for less than a week!

15. Ok, while the upgrade downloads are in progress, here are a couple screen shoots:

http://www.hughesjr.com/fedoracore/screen-1.png

http://www.hughesjr.com/fedoracore/updates-2.png

http://www.hughesjr.com/fedoracore/screen-up2date.png

16. Here is a http://www.hughesjr.com/fedoracore/programs.asp of some of the original installed software and thier versions....

Posted by: hughesjr Feb 21 2004, 06:24 PM

OK, I have been using the system for a couple days. After I finished the upgrades, the new Kernel was:

kernel-2.6.2-1.87

And now, my sound card works. Again, my card is a very common one (soundblaster live) ... I'm glad the new kernel modules made it work.

I am having various small issues ... the RHN applet isn't loading (even from the menu...they load into memory (and are running processes, they just don't show on the menu), so I have to launch up2date using the menu or console.

Up2date (the GUI version) errored out a couple times, there was an error loading headers. Saw that there is a new version of up2date ... tried to install the new version of up2date with the console version. Ok, that worked. And now up2date is working again.

A bunch more updates today ... more than 100.

Started the new updates .... more information later.

Posted by: hughesjr Feb 22 2004, 10:12 AM

Updates on this distrubution are coming fast and furious ... the kernel has changed 3 times in 2 days ... my kernel now is:

kernel-2.6.3-1.97

There were 12 updates that were published since my update 10 hours ago.

The good news is, the sound still works, the graphics issues I was having at bootup in the frame buffer mode is fixed and the rhn-applet is working again. If fact, this set of updates feels much smoother than the system has since installation.

It's still, by no means, production ready .... but it is getting better.

One nagging problem (also happening on my Mandrake 10 RC1 install ... but only on the 2.6.x kernel) is that the mouse scroll wheel works properly in the scroll down direction, but acts like a "Right Click" in the scroll up direction. This causes major headaches inside the Mozilla Browser...This is the https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=115147 at redhat....

Posted by: hughesjr Mar 6 2004, 10:12 PM

OK ... on the problem with the scroll mouse and KVM switch, I found a solution and posted it in this http://www.linuxhelp.ca/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=7&t=2924 in the Tips and Tricks section of the forum.

Posted by: Termina Mar 16 2004, 10:39 AM

How much does that 4000/1000 connections cost? And is it avalibe for residental places?